The ultimate CAT preparation guide: How to maximise your score? -By Hemanth Reddy Varakantham, 99.13 percentile, IIM Ahmedabad - Part I

I started working for an MNC in a data analytics team from July 2019. Having decided to give a serious attempt this time, I started prioritizing my activities since work occupied most of my time. As my office hours started at 11:30 am, I got a solid 3 hours from 8 am for CAT preparation. Most of the time, my typical day would start at 5:30 am with a jog in the park to keep my mind relaxed. I would typically take/analyze a mock or practice/revise a topic from 8 to 11 am. 

 My office provided a great library facility wherein we had access to business magazines and newspapers from all over the world, which I used to read for about an hour daily during lunchtime. Upon reaching home at about 9 pm, I either used to pick up an LRDI set or a set of Quant problems to solve. VARC did not require a special preparation slot in the day, so I used to read articles/essays whenever I got time during the day (even during work hours, for stress relief). On the whole, I used to devote an average of 4 hours daily (more on some days and less on the other) for CAT preparation. 

 CAT preparation can be divided into 3 phases:

1. Before mocks 
2. During Mocks 
3. Last 40 days 

Let’s get down to the basics of the CAT preparation strategy and some tips on maximizing the CAT score.

Clearing the decks for my first CAT attempt

I attended the TIME classes during CAT 2018 on weekends, and I seldom missed a class. Attending the classes gave me a fair idea on the concepts, the range and difficulty of questions that generally appear in the final. 

During the initial phase of CAT preparation, for Quantitative aptitude, my focus was on covering more topics with a root-level understanding of the concepts (especially for topics like geometry) and parallelly making notes of all the topics and the handout problems that I solved. The syllabus for quant was tough for me to complete before giving the mocks, but I went onto with it after ticking off major topics like arithmetic and geometry. 

I was not an avid reader before my CAT preparation started, but a piece of advice from a tutor at TIME saying that if I could not read ten articles or three long essays per day, it was better to stop preparing for the CAT, got me going. I started reading articles and essays on random topics from websites like aldaily.com, aeon.co, project-syndicate.org, currentaffairs.org. I was active on Twitter and hence followed the official accounts of the sites mentioned above to get notified about their best content. 

During the mocks, I realized that technology and fact-based topics were relatively easy to score for me and hence devoted more time to abstract topics (philosophy, arts, etc.). Other than analyzing the mocks, strategy for VARC during the last few days was no different (read, read, read). 

 For LRDI, I tried to get acquainted with all the types of sets first. Attending classes and solving handouts was enough for this purpose. Representing the data most efficiently on the paper was a skill to master. Hence, after getting a fair idea on the types of sets, I started solving a wide range of sets with a motive of finding the best representation for each type of set. 

The last 40 days were devoted solely to writing mocks and analyzing them rigorously. Sectional tests helped finalize my D-day strategy. 

 Verdict: I scored 96.7 percentile in CAT 2018.

The final clean shot 

For CAT 2019, I started preparing from August, and by then, the first and second phases were indistinguishable. Knowing that I was comfortable with some Quant topics, I decided to focus on weaker areas. For VARC, I increased my vigour, but the method remained the same (read, read and read). 

I was well acquainted with the question types in LRDI so, if I picked a question, the only reason I could mess up was due to the lack of ideas. Hence, upon the advice of my senior (now in IIM Shillong), I tried to solve a set all by myself no matter how long it took. Some of them used to take me 1-2 days. The rationale was to get the idea out of me and not from the solution manual. 

For this year’s CAT preparation, I decided to take a lot of mocks, sectional tests and ended up taking close to 8 sectional tests each and 35 mocks. For Quant and LRDI, I took the test again without time constraints to identify the real problem. I analyzed all the mocks with utmost priority and made a note of the mistakes citing the reason against it. 

In the last four days or so leading to the test, I stopped taking mocks and started revisiting the mocks that I took previously. The notes made earlier with all the formulae, and solving strategies gave a sense of confidence on the efforts that I had put-in. 

Verdict: I scored 99.13 percentile in CAT 2019.

The secret of maximizing one's CAT score

The strategy that I followed for all the three sections is as follows:

Prepare the ground for VARC with these three tricks 

Choosing which RC to attempt first is the key to the VARC section. Skim through all the sets once, i.e., read the first paragraph of all the RC's and judge it on the basis of three factors. 

• The familiarity with the topic (2 points) - 2 for most familiar 
• The complexity of language used (2 points) - 2 for the easily understandable language 
• Questions asked, whether inference based or direct questions (5 or 6 points depending on the no. of questions) - 0 for inference else 1

The length of the passage was never a matter of concern for me. I attempted the passage with a greater number of points first. The above process used to consume time initially, but it decreased with practice from one mock to the other. Some people just knew which RC to attempt straight away, but this process worked for me. 

I made sure I attempted most of the passages as opposed to the verbal questions due to the accuracy factor. However, I attempted easier verbal questions without wasting time on the harder ones. 

LRDI: Your selection of sets matters!

Choosing 4-5 best sets among the 8 was the most difficult task. Here, the time invested in choosing the right set will be valued because I did not expect myself to solve all the sets. I saw the act of choosing the right set as solving a separate set in itself. Upon practice, I knew what type of sets to attempt first (arrangement, DI). 

For the remaining questions, the hit trial method was the only option wherein I solved a set for 3-4 minutes, and if it seemed like I was on the right track, then I would go on to solve the set. Again, during mock analysis, no question was left unanswered by ‘me’ by giving up and looking into the solution. This process ensured that I did not make the same mistakes that I had committed during the test. 

A good game of iterations can get you 99+ in Quant

Attempting the section in multiple iterations with the easiest ones in the first iteration and medium difficulty questions in the next would ensure that a minimum of 15-16 questions is correct. I made sure that I attempted the hardest questions that are from my areas of strength. 

I hope this will not only give you a fair and detailed glimpse into my CAT preparation strategy but also guide you to score maximum on the D-Day. Here is a link to my next article on how to prepare for GD, essays and interviews.

Wishing you the best for your CAT examination!